Ye Chui's eggplant pot has been placed on the dining table in the lobby of Lin's Pot Restaurant. Although many of the five gourmets did not have high expectations for today's cooking competition, their eyes still lit up at this moment. The eggplant pot is placed in a casserole. This unique style of kitchenware is very eye-catching for these gourmets.
The people at the other two tables also stood up and looked over.
"The name of this dish is Salted Fish and Eggplant Casserole. Please enjoy it." Ye Chui gave a brief introduction and then opened the lid of the casserole.
The dish is served and the chef personally lifts the lid of the pot. This is called "qi huo", a term used specifically for some special kitchen utensils. Of course, Ye Chui estimated that these foreign gourmets would not understand this, but as the God of Food in his previous life, Ye Chui still attached great importance to this style with a classical Chinese flavor.
As Ye Chui lifted the lid of the casserole, a scent of eggplant wafted towards him. Rich in oil and sauce is the style of Chinese cuisine, which is completely different from European and American cuisine which tends to be fresh. This style has never been popular with international gourmets. In many cuisines, nutritional balance is also a criterion for measuring whether the food is excellent, and in this respect, Chinese cuisine is obviously completely unqualified.
However, when the aroma of eggplants wafted towards them from the table, several gourmets suddenly felt a strong desire to eat the vegetable.
At this time, Han Yuyan hurriedly translated what Ye Chui had just said into English. As for the name of the Salted Fish and Eggplant Casserole, it was obviously impossible to translate it directly, so Sister Han used direct transliteration.
None of the five gourmets present understood Chinese. Even Michelle, although she seemed to have some relationship with Mr. Han, had never learned Chinese. The name of Salted Fish and Eggplant Casserole naturally did not attract any attention from them.
But Mrs. Gao and others standing nearby were all surprised when they heard this name.
Salted fish? What is this ingredient
Everyone knows about fish, but what about salted fish
—Nowadays, fish is a popular meat ingredient, but the most common way to eat it is to eat freshly caught fish directly. I heard that some places have begun to revive the once popular canning technology to preserve the freshness of fish, but pickled fish... I have never heard of it. Salted fish should be pickled fish, right
"Salted fish? This Ye Chui really knows how to be mysterious. The most delicious fish is fresh fish. What's the matter with this salted fish?" Huang Yiyuan sneered coldly, and his voice was very low so that only Mrs. Gao and Lin Li beside him could hear it.
Lin Li also said: "Our Lin family has been making this eggplant stew for decades, and we have perfected it to perfection, but I have never heard of adding salted fish to this dish!"
"The Lin family has been making this eggplant stew for decades. We don't need to worry too much. Master Zhang's skills are already superb. Let's just wait and see how Ye Chui's mutton stew turns out." Mrs. Gao said lightly, as if she had already determined that Ye Chui would lose.
The conversation among the three was suppressed in a very low voice. Perhaps they themselves did not notice that at this moment, their conversation was just self-comfort.
As for Chen Tian, Tang Shanshan, Jiang Yuemei, Robert, Shen Zhongda and others, their conversations were not so stingy. Tang Shanshan had never eaten eggplant stew before, let alone Ye Chui's salted fish and eggplant stew. She couldn't help but shouted: "The salted fish that the boss worked so hard to make seems to taste very good with this eggplant. I must ask him to make this dish for me again when I go back."
"What exactly is this salted fish?" Robert said in English at this time. He became very interested in what Tang Shanshan said, and the word "salted fish" was also transliterated, which sounded a bit strange.
"It's the fish that Master pickled and dried these days. After the fish meat is dehydrated, it can be preserved for a long time. Master said that people in the past used this method to preserve fish. The flavor is very unique, and the taste is even better when stir-fried with eggplant." Chen Tian quickly replied to Robert.
"Pickled and dried fish? Hmm, the magical fish always surprises me. The fish seems to taste very good after being processed in this way. I am looking forward to it and I must study it later." Robert immediately showed a very interested expression.
Last time on Chunyan, he had eaten dishes made with pig intestines. Although the name of this dish made people feel a little repulsive, once the psychological barrier was removed, the taste was absolutely amazing. Robert then developed several American ways to eat pig intestines, such as pig intestine salad, pig intestine sandwich...
These dishes were considered dark cuisine in Ye Chui's previous life, but after being promoted by Robert in this life, they were actually successful - of course, this was on the premise that Robert did not tell the guests that the ingredients of this dish were made from pig intestines...
And now Robert's eyes are shining, as if he has discovered a new ingredient.
Salted fish salad, salted fish sandwich…
While the discussion was going on, the five gourmets did not say anything, but stared at the dishes in the casserole carefully.
There is a special procedure for gourmet evaluation.
In China, people are used to starting with color, aroma, taste, meaning and shape. In Europe and the United States, there is no such thing as color, aroma and taste when cooking, but there are similar classifications, mainly divided into taste and taste. For some special dishes, the plating characteristics must also be considered.
It's vaguely the way of color, fragrance and taste.
As for meaning and form, there is no such way of appreciation with the classical Chinese artistic conception.
However, at this moment, when tasting this eggplant stew, you only need to taste it from the two aspects of taste and flavor.
"The taste is outstanding and the fragrance is very charming. I can give it five points for this fragrance." Michelle said after a moment, and she nodded with a smile.
"I seem to smell the fragrance of fish. Chinese cuisine is really strange. The flavor of eggplant wrapped in a thick sauce and the fragrance of fish can be so perfectly integrated." Another female gourmet, Hannah, took a deep breath, tilted her head back with an expression of enjoyment on her face. After a moment, she continued, "Well, it seems that my previous view of Chinese cuisine was wrong. In terms of taste, I also give this dish a five."
"Five points. I'm looking forward to eating this dish."
"Five points."
"Five points too!"
The remaining three gourmets also went on to speak, but for some reason, they gave the scores directly without explaining why they gave them. Looking at their expressions, they seemed to be a little confused about something.
In formal international cooking competitions, a scoring system is used, with 10 being the full score. A gourmet's 10 points are divided among the various tasting procedures, and this tasting starts with the two aspects of taste and tasting. Five points for taste is the full score.
Upon hearing the ratings from the five gourmets, Chen Tian and the others all showed joy on their faces, while Mrs. Gao and the others were subconsciously shocked.
"Let's taste this dish next." Michelle continued with a smile, picking up a pair of chopsticks from the table, "You need Chinese cooking utensils to eat this dish."
Michelle is apparently quite adept at using chopsticks.
Other gourmets are not so skilled. They are used to using knives and forks in their daily lives and have difficulty in controlling chopsticks used in Asian cuisine. But they do not have too much trouble with this. After all, among the top ten cuisines in the world today, although Chinese cuisine is not very popular, Japanese cuisine is extremely famous. As gourmets, they have no shortage of opportunities to use chopsticks.
But before he could pick up his chopsticks, Nick Cheung came out of the kitchen with his dishes.
Seeing this, Lin Li hurriedly said, "Our Lin's eggplant stew is already ready. How about inviting the five gourmets to taste our Lin's eggplant stew?"
Ye Chui's salted fish and eggplant casserole received full marks from five gourmets, which made Lin Li a little dazed. They wanted to have Lin Li's dishes evaluated immediately as well, trying to save face.
Michelle didn’t refuse, she put down her chopsticks: “Okay then.”
Zhang Jiahui hurriedly placed the casserole in the middle of the dining table and glanced at Ye Chui's salted fish and eggplant casserole. Ye Chui smiled and walked over to cover the casserole with the lid.
When tasting the flavors, one naturally has to take into account the fact that the two dishes will mix with each other. As he closed the lid of the casserole, the strong aroma of eggplant that had originally permeated the air suddenly disappeared, which made several gourmets feel a little reluctant to let it go for a moment.
At this time, Zhang Jiacai finally opened the lid of his casserole.
The aroma of another flavor suddenly filled the air.
All dishes were made with eggplant as the main ingredient, and even the methods of preparation were similar. When the aroma came out, it seemed that ordinary people in the hall could not detect any difference. However, for gourmets, especially the five top gourmets present, the difference in taste was so obvious. The most direct difference was... the aroma of salted fish.
The unique flavor of dried salted fish immediately becomes apparent.
Ye Chui cooks salted fish and eggplant together, taking advantage of the unique properties of eggplant. Before putting it into the casserole, the eggplant must be stir-fried first so that it has the ability to "absorb flavor" and can completely absorb the flavor of the salted fish, allowing the aroma of the eggplant to blend with the salted fish. This dish is based on eggplant, but the most important part is the salted fish!
"I see!" Chris exclaimed, "Great, that's great."
"Chinese cuisine is truly ingenious." Tony followed Chris' words.
(ps: Don’t worry about the English words “巧夺天工” and “妙”… They are just to describe the effect, and you can understand it.)
They were all silent when they tasted Ye Chui's eggplant stew before, but now they laughed.
Lin Li, Zhang Jiahui, Madam Gao, and Huang Yiyuan all smiled. Their reactions at least proved that Zhang Jiahui's eggplant stew was no worse than Ye Chui's...
Zhang couldn't wait to ask, "Please rate the taste of this dish."
"Four points." Michelle said after thinking for a moment.
Then Hannah: "Three points."
Chris: “Three points.”
Tony: “Four points.”
Sid: “Two points.”
Nick Cheung: “… ”(~^~)